Garden Mid Summer Update

This has been an excellent gardening year so far. Monsoon came early and our summer heat did not start until mid July and these two factors brought on an early harvest. 

Things I got right and would do again: 

I planted duplicate plants in different microclimates of our property. There are three mellon and squash patches, four tomato patches etc. This allowed me to get harvests coming in a different times so they're staggered. Also, when the squash bugs got one of my squash patches, the others remained undetected. I do want to mention that I've won the squash bug war in the area that they did invade. Three time a day I remove them and their eggs. After a week of this I now only have to remove about 4 or 5 a day. And there are no more egg nests! 

I grew all plants from seedlings and did multiple rounds of seedlings of the same plants. If a plant died off or showed weakness I simply planted another with the back up seedlings. 

Harvests - so far we've harvested: 

Sunflower seeds 

Tomatoes (some we dried and jarred)

Potatoes (some we dried and jarred) 

Onions

Garlic

Shallots (weak harvest, they never obtained good size)

Corn

Coriander (dried) 

Black Eyed Peas (dried) 

Snap Peas (ate them as I grazed in the gardens) 

Squash

Herbs like marjoram, orageno and thyme

Peppers

Amaranth (for flour) 

Greens like kale, chard, some spinach, lettuce

Almonds

Apricots

Leeks

Coming Up Now:  more tomatoes, squash, corn, beans, sunflowers, horseradish, AND parsnips, carrot,  eggplant, mellon, watermelon, pumpkin, sage, apples, tomatillos, loofa

I also started an asparagus bed this year. 

Failed Crops: garbanzo bean (too hot), sesame (planted too late), grapes

Next year: Plant MORE of everything!

Chainsaw Massacre

Chainsaw Massacre
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We chopped up one of trees into firewood sizes so we could move them out of the way. The work went fast, but only after the usual dissapointment with our Stihl chainsaw not starting. It was back to our 800W electric which is a lot easier for me to maintain than any 2-cycle engine. The heat has been turned up now with temperatures now hitting 100F.

Peltier A/C Idea

Peltier A/C Idea
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I've been interested in getting a peltier unit working in my shipping container for some cool air during the hot part of the afternoon. I tried hooking up some computer fans below the peltier unit, and using a 13.8V @ 3A power supply. I found I was getting about 20 degrees cooler than the hot side, but still not cold enough to actually cool down my shipping container. I suppose the next step is to find a bigger power supply so I can drive the peltier full blast which is 7A. It would be amazing to have a $35 / 80W A/C unit.

Fence Post Update

Fence Post Update
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We are nearing the half way mark for fence post installation. This is some grueling work primarily due to the summer heat and moving the bags of concrete around. We are working really short days only two hours before giving up. My back can't take much more than that since most of time is spent holding 80lb bags of concrete. If strength were not such a concern on these fence posts we would be mixing our own concrete with local sand, gravel and Portland.

Pigging Out

Pigging Out
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I was munching on all sorts of deliciousness from local gardens and farms yesterday. This sweet corn came home with Wendy from the farmers market. It went really well with our bread, watermelon, sprouts, pickles, etc.

Bulk Desulfators

Bulk Desulfators
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Last week the folks at Hack-A-Day were nice enough to post up a blurb about my battery desulfators. Since then I've been inundated with orders for battery desulfators. I had to order parts for another 25 units and this is what that looks like. On a related note I spent some measuring the peak pulse on known "dead" batteries and known "good" batteries and saw some really interesting results. A battery that is not holding a charge well due to sulfation will have a REALLY big peak pulse at least three times the voltage of the battery. A battery that is performing at nearly 100% has a tiny peak pulse of just about 1V greater than the nominal voltage. This should little tidbit will make for another good indicator to let me know how "good" a battery is.

Mini-D

One desulfator $50.00 Two desulfators $90.00 Three desulfators $125.00

Tasty Summer Drink

Tasty Summer Drink
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I've been making this lemongrass drink each morning. It is really tasty with blueberries when they are in season.

- 6 C water
- 1 T lemongrass
- 2 T agave
- 3 limes
- small slice of ginger
- 15 blueberries
- pinch of salt

Blend and strain before drinking.

Drying Potatoes and Tomatoes

Drying Potatoes and Tomatoes
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I've been drying our tomatoes and potatoes. I kind of screwed up a bit on the first round of potatoes, they were supposed to be blanched. We have been pulling in quite a bit of both and drying seems to be the best storage method for long durations.

The Squash Bug

The Squash Bug
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Last year we grew several types of squash with no trouble. This year has been different. We lost a good size squash plant this week to the bug. Wendy has pulled off about 50 of these little critters and dozens of leaves covered with their eggs. Apparently butternut and acorn squash are not effected by this bug.

Setting Up Fence Posts

Setting Up Fence Posts
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Despite the temperature being nearly 100F this afternoon Wendy and I managed to get two fence posts concreted. We also dug out five more holes. Things are looking pretty easy at this point. Just 20 more posts to go.

What's Ripe Stew al la India

It has been a daily challenge to come up with ways to eat what's ripe in the garden. This dish was last nights dinner (and today's lunch). It's comprised of a thick stew-like sauce made of herbs: coriander (from the garden), garam masala, cumin, tumeric, cayenne (mixed in a bit of water and cooked down in ghee) about 1.5 cups of coconut milk (home made by mikey from bulk shredded coconut). Added to this a corn and squash puree (from the garden) that I made in the food processor, and added to this whole peeled potatoes (from the garden), sliced red pepper and at the last minute cherry tomatoes. I topped it off with a bit of agave nectar for sweetening and fresh parsley (from the garden) and put it over jasmine rice. The red pepper and tomatoes added a lovely bright kick to a hearty base.

Why You Don't Want Lime Colored Limes

Why You Don't Want Lime Colored Limes
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Last spring Wendy and I took a raw food class. One of the things we learned still surprises me today. When shopping for limes you don't actually want the lime colored ones. The more yellow the lime is the more ripe it is. A fully rope lime will actually look like a lemon. In the US we seem our food industry has seemed to train us to desire bright green limes. I suspect this is due to shipping efficiency and longer shelf lives of moving the unripe product. On a related not same goes for pomegranite. The sweetest ones are white with maturity.

Grease Cleanup

Grease Cleanup
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I spent a few hours reducing all my plastic waste veggie oil containers. These have been sitting in the sun for so long that the plastic would crack when I lifted them off the ground. I managed to get down to 10 containers before a ominous looking storm rolled in.

Shallot Not So Wow

Unlike the over achieving sunflower, the shallots I planted have not been impressive. They've been in the ground since about November and have barely produced any size to their bulb. The bed I planted most of them in was a new bed with a soil mix of sand, pete moss, humus, manure and compost. The tomatoes that shared the bed did just fine but the red onions in that bed were weak too. Perhaps it was the soil mix or immaturity of the soil? I did plant a couple of shallots in another bed and they were quite large. Hummm. . . (insert head scratch and confused look here).

Sunflower Wow

I'm positively blown away by the sunflower. They grow rapidly, to huge heights, and track the sun with amazing accuracy. And what can we say about that stunning pattern in the middle but wow! What a brilliant plant! The monsoons brought at least one of mine to harvest early. The seeds inside are plump! Others however are either void of inner seed or with thin seeds. I left those on the stalk a while longer. For the one sunflower that the birds were paying attention to, I put a mirror on the ground beneath it. When the birds descend to land on the flower they seem their image and get scared away. It works pretty well.

Black-Eyed Peas

Black-Eyed Peas
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Dinner tonight was garden fresh carrots, black-eyed peas, and chard. This is the first time we have actually eaten the black-eyed peas and they were delicious. I just boiled them in water with the carrots for a while and seasoned with salt and pepper. The chard got the usual frying with garlic and tamari. Simple, but certainly enjoyable.

Unhappy Grapes

Unhappy Grapes
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We recently learned that our grapes need to be trimmed back. We had thought that they could just climb and climb and climb. Apparently that is a good way to not get any fruit. Now they look pretty sickly.

String Line

String Line
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We finally got our string line in place for the fence. We still need
to do some math to figure out post positioning so we avoid trees and
RV hookups. Maybe tomorrow we will dig a hole.

The Expense of Reckless

The Expense of Reckless
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Two of my earlier distillers and about 10 bikes were dropped off at the landfill today. Although I had done some designs for the distillers before making them I never got a good enough seal to provide a reliable source of drinking water. The bikes turned out to be less than ideal for welding together. There is also a abundance of bikes by dumpsters around town.

5lbs of Unripe Apples

5lbs of Unripe Apples
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

One of our apple trees was sporting a incredible quantity of apples. At one point we considered thinning out the apples, but decided on being greedy and seeing if the tree limbs could take the weight of all hat fruit. Guess what - two large branches broke. This left us with 5lbs of immature apples which are now sitting in a cardboard box. I'm thinking that they might rippen a bit from their own off gassing. His tricked worked on our green tomatoes last fall.

Open Sesame Cookies

Open Sesame Cookies
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We baked doggie cookies for our little friend this morning. It was quite wet most of the day and we wanted to make the most of indoor day. These doggie/human treats will be featured in a upcoming Craft Blog Post. I will share the recipe once the story breaks.

The Hunt Continues

The Hunt Continues
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Along with Scardy cats extensive collection of lizards and grasshoppers he has bagged a big one. A baby mouse, his second. I can see the endorphins flowing through him each time he catches a mouse. It is his purpose in life.

North Side Painted

North Side Painted
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy painted the north side of my office container while I was trying to work in it. The noises and fumes were enough to run me into another structure. At least it is done for now. Tomorrow begins the string line for the fence.

The Cherry Tomato

The Cherry Tomato
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Our new favorite garden snack. You can munch on them as you work and they come in fast and early.

Our First Almonds

Our First Almonds
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Earlier this year we pulled almonds off our 1 year old Almonds tree. It seemed too young and fragile to be producing nuts so we thinned it down to just a half dozen almonds. The two we sampled today were pretty tasty.

Chainsawed Two Trees

Chainsawed Two Trees
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Our friend Jason helped us cut down two trees that were moderately dead on the back yard. Between us we had three chainsaws and a axe. We ended up using a $5 electric one for virtually all the work. Looks like we have some more mulberry firewood for the winter.

Gnocchi Again

Gnocchi Again
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy made enough gnocchi yesterday that we could eat it again for dinner tonight. The dish changed in two ways.

1. The sauce is no a blue cheese base with majoram, basil, thyme, and oregano all from the garden.

2. The gnocchi didn't hold up well to refridgeration. It got mushy and was more like a potato soup. We still have lots to learn here.

Battery Cleanup

Battery Cleanup
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

In preparation for our new fence I needed to move some batteries out of the way. I setup a small area for my desulfating batteries along with my cores that are used for trading.

Shipping Container cleanup

Shipping Container cleanup
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

My office had a east facing wall with some papercrete blocks on it. Today we demolished the wall and started prepping for painting the wall white tomorrow. The blocks looked pretty bad and can be used in our next dome as insulation instead.

Bike Collection

Bike Collection
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We are about to give all these bikes to a local steel scrap guy. I had been collecting frames with the intention of making bizarre fences and tall bikes. After three years of collecting bikes from dumpsters it is time to let go. I'm just not going to actually do anything with them.

Freshly Painted Rain Water Tank

Freshly Painted Rain Water Tank
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy painted the tote to prevent algae growth. I like this forest green color, it looks great.

Wireless Monitoring of a PV Panel

Wireless Monitoring of a PV Panel
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I wrote up a blog post for Voltaic
Systems DIY page. This post contains the parts, schematic, and software to start monitoring small solar panels wirelessly. I really like that this basic infrastructure can be used in pretty much any project. I suspect that many of my future projects will be making use of xbee, python, and pachube to capture and share data on-line. I'm tempted to build a custom circuit which can log my 2kW PV system. Really tempted.

Onions up!

Finally.... I planted these in november!!

Got Potatoes? Make Gnocchi

Got Potatoes? Make Gnocchi
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy has been asking me every day "What will we do with all these potatoes". I say french fries. Can't have enough of those. Today she made gnocchi. It was pretty good.

Rain Water Transfer Pump

Rain Water Transfer Pump
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We have about 1100 gallons of rain water catchment capacity. This a 2x improvement from last year. The problem has been getting enough rain to fill up all of our tanks. The recent rains gave us enough water to go ahead and try to transfer water from our primary catch tank to our secondary storage tank on the south side of the house. I wired up a $10 pump which I had picked up at a yard sale this year. Although clumsy this pump did a good job of transferring nearly 150 gallons of water in about thirty minutes.

Todays harvest: potatoes & squash

It's not even July and we harvesting left and right. This giant squash seems to have appeared over night (thank u monsoon). Now I've got to scramble for a gnocci recepie so that I can make and freeze a few 1lb bags for the future. I think a chest freezer will soon be needed. Oh and I have been loving these soda racks I clipped from behind the grocery that went out of biz. They are awesome for transporting seedling trays, laying out and cleaning harvests and drying.

Viva Verde

Viva Verde
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We just returned from a two night trip to Silver City. I was a speaker at the Viva Verde event on the topic of "Digital Homesteading". Pretty much the same talk I gave at the Albuquerque dorkbot meeting earlier this year. All the talks I attended were quite good. I enjoyed learning about native foods, drought issues in the southwest, animal husbandry, SIPs as a building material, and issues around biofuels. We were a bit worried about the garden not getting watered while we were away. No problem there. When we came home I noticed that we have around 600 gallons of rain water in the tanks. There must have been some serious storms for the last three days because there is water everywhere.

The extractor

We had a chance to test our snake and bee venom extraction kit. I got
stung by a wasp while walking in the park. It pulled the venom out really well. Now I'll likely have a big red sucker spot for a week!! I just hope I never need to use it on a rattlesnake bite.

The Impending Harvest

The Impending Harvest
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Tomatoes, squash, apples, onions, sunflower seeds and so much more. We are now picking tomatoes on a daily basis! In June. This is crazy.

Lithium Swap

Lithium Swap
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

My neighbor Davey had a little stash of lithium-ion batteries. I swapped him the batteries for a large 100lb deep cycle I've been desulfating for the last three months. Now I can rip apart these laptop batteries and start repacking my power tools with lithium cells. The advantages being longer runtime and lower weight.

Fence Posts (Almost Done)

Fence Posts (Almost Done)
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We spent a few more hours sealing the 3x3 square tube posts with rustoleum. We were almost done when it began to ran so we called it a day.

Lot O Garlic

Lot O Garlic
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy tells me that this wall will contains 75 bulbs. Our garlic harvest minus only the other wall with a few dozen smaller bulbs. Our house smells like a Italian restaurant and looks like we have a serious fear of vampires. Notice how she left all the roots on and did not wash the bulbs. We believe this to be the correct way to store garlic for the long term. Let it dry out before putting any water on it to clean it up.

Fence Posts

Fence Posts
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

It has been a gloomy morning with occasional light rain showers. Kind of perfect for going out in the yard and cutting a bunch of square tube steel fence posts. Wendy and I cut all the 20' lengths down to 10' and even started clean and seal them with rustoleum. We still have about twenty more posts to clean and seal. The rain drove us in early.

Electrical License

Electrical License
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I'm reading the National Electric Code (2008) here. A few folks in town have asked me to do larger PV solar installations and I really can't do this without a electrical license (that belongs to me or a contractor). The test looks reasonable and I'm not too concerned with that. I've not been able to discern how long I need to apprentice or if it is necessary for me to become a journeyman before going for a master electrician EE-98. Comments welcome. It would be really nice if New Mexico would just adopt a PV solar installer class license and not require that a electrician license be present for every install. California and few other states have such a provision.

Desulfating Baby Batteries

Desulfating Baby Batteries
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

This is a 12V @ 8Ah lead-acid battery from a old scooter of mine. This battery hasn't been charged in nearly three years and had a voltage reading of 4.9V. I started desulfating it today and watched it hop up to 15V and slowly drop down as it charged. I'm just using a 12V @ .5A wall wart with a small desulfator unit. The nice thing about little batteries like these is that they should be done desulfating within 4 days. I'm going to watch this one closely because it would be very easy to overcharge it and pop the internal cells.

Bathroom Ceiling Painted

Bathroom Ceiling Painted
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy went ahead and made some more paint for the bathroom ceiling. She is dying a elastomeric with our brown umber. I think the bathroom looks pretty good. She says it is now her favorite room in the house.

Scallions and Garlic

Scallions and Garlic
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

There is so much garlic in our home that I keep thinking that
something is burning. The garlic actually smells that strongly. Wendy also pulled some scallions today which we have left in the ground for over six months (I thought scallions were faster than that). Both the scallions and garlic are larger in size than what Wendy had been pulling earlier this month. The south facing gardens seem to do best for these crops.

Brown Dragon Fly

Brown Dragon Fly
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy threw a stick at my shipping container to alert me that a brown dragonfly was present in the east garden. It sure is a pretty insect. We took a bunch of photos and went back to work.

The Longest Day of the Year

The Longest Day of the Year
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

It sure felt like a long day. Woke up early due to the dog barking at something. Worked on my solar panel logger while Wendy did yard cleanup. Did our daily lap swim, ate brunch at Bella Lucca, urethaned the remaining 2x4's for the fence, cleaned up battery desulfation pack, walked dog, made stirfry, and now we are waiting for the sun to go down so we can watch a movie.

Fence Prep (Wood Seal)

Fence Prep (Wood Seal)
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We have begun our journey into another long fence project. Today we prepped 18 2x4x16's with a urethane sealer. These wood stringers which mount perpendicular to the fence posts needed to be sealed ASAP since the sun and irregular rain could warp the boards before we have a chance to get them in place.

A Summer Meal

A Summer Meal
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We made our first meal this summer in which all the major ingredients were grown in a local garden.

- Corn on the Cob (they were small, but tasty)
- Junk Food Salad - lettuce from Al's garden and our own
- Turnip Tops - fried in ginger / garlic / tamari / hot sauce
- Balsamic Plums - from Al's plumb tree

It was such a healthy feeling meal that I immediately went out to pick up a pint of Ben and Jerry's Fhish food to enjoy as desert with rasberries and blueberries.

Industrial Look

Industrial Look
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We had some lamps in our bathroom that were added during our renovation. They had a crazy look fake brass with middle eastern tiles behind them. While I was out of town yesterday Wendy decided to repaint the bathroom blue, rip off the tiles, and replace the fixtures. Now we have a more industrial look. Like any task this took five three trips to the hardware store to get the correct mountings. I really like these new sheet rock anchors with plastic zip tie sleeves.

The Marina Battery Situation

The Marina Battery Situation
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I've learned that the trade in value of batteries has dropped to zero at the Marinas. Last summer I was told that people were getting up to $20 for their deep cycle batteries in core value. Now apparently the cores are just given away and picked up by battery recycles offering nothing to the boat shops. I stopped by a local boat mechanics business today and he gave me five batteries. Most of which just need a charge and minor desulfating. These are a good source of deep cycle batteries.

Spaceport Groundbreaking

Spaceport Groundbreaking
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Today was the space port ground breaking. We went to the park to hear some of the involved parties speak about what a pivotal moment in history this is for the world and especially Truth or Consequences. I'm quite skeptical about it all, but happy to see them try. Governor Richardson spoke along with high ranking officials from Virgin Galactic and the a member of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). Wendy managed to swipe a bag of spaceport schwag which we will promptly hock on ebay. The Virgin Galactic Mothership - White Knight 2 was flying in to make a appearance, but didn't make it all the way (figures!) so nobody got to see the spacecraft today.

Another Fence

Another Fence
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Our summer construction plans are pretty minimal.

1. Build 175' long 8' tall fence to block out derelict neighbors.
2. Build some shade for outdoor kitchen.

We just picked up about 2500lbs of steel and wood yesterday. Tomorrow we will start prepping the posts.

Do You Like Corn?

Do You Like Corn?
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We sure like eating corn. Getting it to the edible state is a first for us. We ate a few ears raw since they seemed to be soft enough to not require boiling. There is more corn in a nearby bed that is native to this area. That looks as though it will be much larger than this batch. Wendy plans on planting more since it came in so early.

Seed organizing

Whew! I finally got fed up with the zillion little packs of seeds in bags with no order to them. Today I spent about 3 hours combining all the same packs into one and then organizing them in this box alphabetically. Ya, an OCD day for sure! The flower and herb seeds didn't fit and still have their own separate bags but at least now I can find things.

Potatoes, Garlic and Corn

Wow everything seems to be ready at once and early! I picked a ton of garlic, some potatoes and the husks on my corn are dry so I pulled em back and ate a small one raw. It was super yummy. I think the corn will be small. The round of garlic from my deeper bed is much larger than the shallow bed was. I'm starting another variety as seedlings today. With all the free garden space i'll be starting seedlings for another round of peppers, corn, basil and eggplant.

A Beautiful Walk

A Beautiful Walk
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I often wake up between 6am - 7am and immediately walk the dog. I don't even make coffee until we return from the walk. There was something about the clouds and light this morning that made me want to take a bunch of photos. Somehow my little iphone picked up this gem in the park.

The Garden Provides

The Garden Provides
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

It is so exciting each time a new fruit or vegetable ripens to the point of being edible. It usually means look out you have a of eating to do. The tomatoes are my favorite because they are easy to dry and we can work them into meals almost every day. I pulled our first three cherry tomatoes today and they were delicious. I'm on the hunt for some to eat tomorrow, but no luck yet.